


Into the Volcano

by Aiffe



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe, Angst, Biology not possible in humans, Dildos, Dubious Consent, F/M, Female Alpha, Gender Role Reversal, Knotting, Male Omega, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Verse, Other, Porn, Problematic Concept, Rape Culture, Sexual Harassment, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:59:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiffe/pseuds/Aiffe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Omegaverse AU. Lessons in a confusing world (some very private) and some Korra wished she could have learned without making such a mess of things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Volcano

**Author's Note:**

> Please note the tags. If you don't know what alpha/beta/omega dynamics are, you should probably google them. You were warned.

“So how’s it going with that tall, dreamy firebender boy?” Jinora asked. “You’ve been spending a _lot_ of time with him lately.”

“Ooh, yeah!” Ikki piped in. “Tell us about the magical romance!”

Korra looked at both of them askance. “Mako’s a yang,” she said, as if that explained everything. They weren’t too innocent to know about yins and yangs if they were reading romance novels. “And I’m a yang too. So it wouldn’t work out. Besides, Mako’s already got a yin. A beautiful, elegant rich girl who smells amazing. So he’s pretty much set,” Korra said bitterly.

“Ooooh?” Jinora said. “Sounds like someone’s got a crush!”

“No way,” Korra said. “It’s not like in your books, not everyone’s thinking about romantic stuff all the time.” She took a breath. “But even if I was, there’s no chance, right?”

“I just read a historical saga where a yang woman fell in love with the general’s yin son, who was already betrothed to the yang princess,” Jinora said excitedly. “You should do what she did!”

“Tell me!” Korra said.

“She rode a dragon into battle and burned down the _entire_ country. It was _so_ romantic. Then she jumped into a volcano!”

Uh,” Korra said, her heart sinking. There _had_ to be better options than this.

“No, no, no!” Ikki cut in. “The best way to win a yin’s heart is to brew a love potion of rainbows and sunsets that makes true lovers sprout wings and fly into a magical castle in the sky, where they get married and eat clouds with spoons and use stars as ice cubes in their moonlight punch. Forever and ever and ever!” she cried, spinning into the air with excitement.

“The volcano is starting to make more sense to me now,” Korra said. Hearing a laugh, Korra turned around to see Pema. “Oh, hey Pema,” she said. “How long were you standing there?”

“Long enough,” Pema said. “I know what you’re going through. Why don’t we talk about it in private a bit? Yang girl to yang girl.”

Korra accepted gratefully.

-

“It’s been driving me _crazy_ ,” Korra said. Pema continued to listen sympathetically, so she went on. “Mako. I swear he doesn’t even shower before he comes to the gym. And all I can smell is Asami, Asami, Asami. It’s _fine_ if he wants to date someone, but he could at least show some basic consideration for the rest of us.”

“You’re not used to yin scents, are you?” Pema said. “The city must come as a shock to you.”

“You have _no idea_ ,” Korra said, throwing her head back in despair. Her first day in the city she’d followed yins around on Naga calling out obscene suggestions. That’d earned her a stern talking-to from that terrifying yin police chief—a lot of stuff about how yins weren’t there for her pleasure, and had a right to go about their lives in peace. She’d dug her nails into her palms, trapped in that tiny room with Beifong’s scent choking her and a raging hard-on, nodded and said as little as possible.

Beifong had been right, of course. Korra knew she had to behave herself. Unfortunately, no one at the compound had taught her, because it had just never come up. All of her energy had been directed into training—she was lucky if she had the energy left to rub one out at the end of the night, much less think about yins. And finally, with pro-bending, she’d found something that made sense, something that felt normal, and Mako had to go and ruin it. _Mako_. With that Asami. Why did he have to bring her into this?

“You’ve hardly even had the chance to meet anyone yet,” Pema said gently. “Why don’t you give it some time? These feelings are natural, but you can’t just fixate on the first yin you get a whiff of.” She grinned. “Especially since that was probably my husband.”

Korra blushed brightly. “What! I’d never! He’s…he’s _Tenzin_. And he’s _pregnant_ , anyway, he doesn’t even smell the same.”

“I do know what you’re going through, though. Your nose can make you think you’re in love with someone you don’t even _like_.”

Korra thought of her body’s humiliating reaction to Beifong. “That’s for sure,” she grumbled. “And, I’m not. I know I haven’t been here long, but I’ve smelled tons of yins, and Asami…she’s really special.” She clawed at her face. “But she’s my teammate’s girlfriend, so I _can’t_ , so why does he have to rub my nose in it? Ugh, just, every time I see them together, it makes me wanna….” She trailed off, before things got too personal.

“You know, just because someone is seeing someone, doesn’t mean you can’t tell them how you really feel if you like them. Asami’s an adult, she can make her own decisions.”

Korra considered this. “But won’t Mako hate me?”

“And what, Asami gets no say in the matter? Maybe she’d rather be with you.”

Just the suggestion was getting Korra’s heart racing. She looked at Pema’s smug, confident expression. “You’re totally done this before, haven’t you?” She gasped. “ _Tenzin_. He was with another yang when you met him!”

Pema laughed. “Close. Actually, he was with another yin.”

-

The match had gone fantastic, with the Fire Ferrets winning all three rounds. They were just all congratulating each other for a game well-played, when Korra caught that scent again. Thick and musky, it made her think of hyacinths in the rain, or applewood smoke, mixed with other smells, warm and earthy.

Or, you know, wet, ready vaginas. It made her think of those too.

Asami sauntered in with Pabu on her shoulder. “Congratulations, guys! You were so amazing out there!” She kissed Mako’s cheek, and Korra tensed, momentarily losing her nerve, then steeled herself.

“You too!” she said, then, at Asami’s perplexed look, “I mean, you were amazing too.”

Asami smiled, but it didn’t look exactly like a happy smile. “I didn’t really do anything, though.”

“Yeah, well…you took care of Pabu,” Korra fumbled. She reminded herself not to compliment Asami on her scent. She’d learned early on that that was the fastest way to turn yins off, though she didn’t understand why. They smelled great, what was wrong with noticing? “And…just knowing you were watching made me play better,” Korra said, which wasn’t entirely untrue.

“Well, I’m glad to have inspired such great plays,” Asami said graciously.

Mako was now glaring at her from over Asami’s shoulder. “ _Actually_ , Korra, Asami and I were just about to go out—”

“I wasn’t _talking_ to you,” Korra snapped.

Growing up in the compound with so many other yangs, Korra generally didn’t get pulled into competition with them. She’d needed to learn to control that instinct and work together, and by now it came easily to her; cooperation and camaraderie between yangs felt normal. But it seemed the scent of a yin in the mix set all that training right back to square one. She’d never felt so much like fighting to the death like in the old stories as she did with Mako.

“No, you were just making a pass at my girlfriend right in front of me. What is _wrong_ with you, Korra?”

Korra had a lot of thoughts in her head then, and none of them seemed to be operating on logic. All she could think was that Mako _deserved_ to have Asami snatched from right under his nose, for his brazenness in going around _smelling_ like her all the time, just _wafting_ it under her nose until it drove her mad. That’d show him! “Well, I really like Asami, and I think we’re meant for each other,” she said. “Asami’s an adult, she can make her own choice who she wants to date.”

Mako ground his teeth, but before he could say anything, Asami put her hand on his shoulder. “Korra is right,” she said, and for a moment Korra’s heart was in her throat, and Mako looked dismayed. “I am an adult, and I can make my own choices,” she continued. “I think you’re really amazing, Korra, but I chose Mako, and you need to respect that.”

Korra felt like the ground had opened up under her and she was falling. She flailed about for reasons Asami must be lying, she would _prove_ to her that they should be together—but Asami’s eyes were level, calm, determined. “F-forget I ever said anything,” Korra said, backing away. As if something like that could just be forgotten, as if they could ever go back to normal. As if normal was even anything good. She’d have to keep on smelling Asami’s scent winding over Mako’s, curling in the air every time they trained. Waves of misery swept over her.

Without realizing what she was doing, she’d walked over to Bolin. “So, Korra, I was thinking,” he said, and Korra looked at him, desperate for any distraction right now, “you and me, we could get some dinner, sort of a _date_ situation.”

Well. That was unexpected. “I don’t even know how that’d work, considering we’re both yangs,” Korra said dubiously.

“That’s what makes us so perfect for each other!” Bolin said enthusiastically. “I mean, we’re both young, right, we’ve got our careers to think of. Who’d want to settle down with a yin at our age, anyway?” he said, with an unimpressed look in Asami’s direction.

“I dunno,” Korra said, following his gaze to _perfect_ Asami. “I’m not feeling very dateable right now.”

“Are you kidding?” Bolin exclaimed. “You’re the smartest, funniest, toughest, buffest, talentedest, incrediblest girl in the world! Anyone who wouldn’t want to go out with you is a fool, whether they’re yin or yang.”

Korra couldn’t help but glow a bit under the praise. “You really feel that way about me?”

“I felt that way since the moment I saw you! Trust me, I know we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

“You know what, I could use some fun,” Korra said. “Okay, sure!”

-

It was actually really refreshing, just spending time with another yang again. Korra enjoyed Bolin’s company, his yang openness and enthusiasm, instead of constantly trying to guess what he might be thinking. It felt…easy.

Of course, it was weird to think that this was a _date_ , and Korra still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. To make matters worse, the restaurant swirled with scents of other people, both yangs and yins, and it was the yin scents that pulled at something deep inside her. And at least one of the other restaurant patrons had noticed her, too.

“Hey, who’s that creepy guy who keeps staring at us?” she asked.

Bolin looked around, his expression changing to suspicion and dislike. “That’s Tahno and the Wolfbats. The reigning champs, three years running. Don’t make eye contact.”

But Tahno and his friends were getting up to come see them, and Korra couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him. With all the other scents in the restaurant, she couldn’t make out what he was, but she tended to assume yang first, whenever she met or even just heard of a new person. Normally that wouldn’t have meant anything to her, but after her little spat with Mako, she was kind of spoiling for a fight. Those girls on each arm were probably yins, too.

“Uh-oh, here he comes,” Bolin said. “Now don’t mess with this guy, he’s a nasty dude.” He busied himself with his noodles, as if trying to send a clear signal that even though he was a yang, he had no interest in a fight.

Tahno sauntered over to the table, a cocky swing in his step. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Fire Ferrets, pro-bending’s saddest excuse for a team. Tell me, how did you luck your way into the tournaments? Especially you, _Avatar_.” He leaned in close, and Korra was too stunned to move. At this range, his scent hit her like a boulder to the chest.

And he was a yin. He was _definitely_ a yin. His scent was so sweet it was cloying, and it seemed to be accented with a bit of perfume—not the type intended to mask a yin’s scent, but designed to complement and enhance it.

“If you want to know how a real pro bends,” Tahno purred, close to her ear, “there’s things your yang teammates can’t teach you. But I could give you some _private_ lessons.”

For a moment Korra’s attraction to him just simmered, then something in her seemed to snap. He wasn’t sincere about flirting with her, not like Bolin had been. This was just more underhanded yin games. He was manipulating her, _teasing_ her, using the effect he knew he had on her but not intending to give her a damn thing. The frustration she felt over having to smell Asami all the time yet not being able to do anything with her boiled over into anger. She didn’t even _like_ this Tahno asshole, who the hell was he to make her feel so turned on? She stood up, full of barely-restrained rage.

“You want to go toe-to-toe with me, pretty boy?” she said, getting right up in his face. If he wanted to play sports with the yangs, she wasn’t going to feel bad about hitting him.

Tahno’s lip curled in a smirk. “I wasn’t really thinking toes. But we could start there if you like,” he said.

“Korra, don’t, if he goes to the cops saying you sexually harassed him, we’ll be disqualified,” Bolin hissed.

“What? He’s sexually harassing _me_!” Korra said.

“You’re a yang, he’s a yin, who are they going to believe?” Bolin said.

Korra grit her teeth in frustration. She probably couldn’t just hit him, either—a yang battering a yin, it’d look _bad_ , even if the smarmy dickface did deserve it.

Thinking suddenly of a third option, Korra whistled hard, signaling Naga to stick her head in the window and roar. Tahno stumbled back with an embarrassing scream, and took a moment to get his hair back together, flustered.

Yins were just so _ridiculous_ , Korra thought. It was stupid how much she liked them.

Bolin laughed. “I’ve never seen someone razz Tahno like that before,” he said. “You, Korra, are one of a kind.”

Korra grinned. She never got sick of praise, really. But beneath that, something was bothering her.

They continued their date, and it was exactly as Korra would have imagined dating a yang would be—a lot of belching and fun.

“I’m really having a good time tonight,” Bolin said, putting his hand over Korra’s. “I hope you are too.”

“It’s a blast!” she said with a grin, but her face fell a bit. “I just…that thing with Tahno….”

Bolin chuckled. “I was worried for a moment there, but you handled it like a champ.”

“I really don’t want you to be hurt,” Korra said. “You’ve been awesome this whole night.” She saw worry on his face, under the compliment—‘I don’t want you to be hurt’ rarely meant anything good, on a date. “I just don’t think I’m attracted to yangs. I’m really flattered by how much you like me, and I love spending time with you, but…honestly, the most excited I’ve been tonight is when Tahno was in my face, and he’s a total jerk I wouldn’t be caught dead with.” She let her head fall forward onto the table, into her arms. “I’m just _really_ attracted to yins. It’s not your fault, Bolin. If you were a yin I’d probably sweep the plates off this table and do you right now.”

Bolin tried to smile faintly. “Well. Thanks for being honest. Um. I’m just going to drown my sorrows now.”

Korra squeezed his hand. “Come on, we can still have some fun. Please don’t feel bad. I want to end this night on a good note.”

They went sightseeing a bit after that. The city was spectacular at night, and Korra hoped the fresh air would clear her head. Though she still picked up the scents of lots of yins in the tightly-packed city, at least she didn’t have Tahno sticking to her anymore.

She walked Bolin home, though he supposed he didn’t need it, it only felt proper for her, as a yang ending a date. Bolin seemed a bit dispirited, but he was taking it pretty well. Better than she was handling the whole Asami thing, anyway. As she was leaving the arena, she saw Mako sitting out front.

“What kind of game are you playing?” Mako demanded.

“Uh, pro-bending? We’ve got the quarterfinal match soon.” Korra was tired, both emotionally and physically, and instead of wanting to fight Mako, she wished he could just let this go and let things be the way they were. Or, you know, she could burn the country down and jump into a volcano. The more the night wore on, the more she saw the wisdom of that course.

“No, I mean with Bolin. Going after Asami is bad enough, but this is between us. Keep him out of it.”

“Well, you’ve got nothing to worry about, because I broke it off with him tonight,” Korra spat. She stared at him, the embers of her anger starting to stir again. “Wait a second, you’re not _worried_ , you’re _jealous_ ,” she said.

“Jealous? Yeah, I want you to stay away from Asami, that okay with you?”

Korra scoffed. “We sorted the thing with Asami. But you’re mad _now_. Look at you. You’re a lot like your brother, aren’t you? You like yangs.”

“What?” Mako said incredulously. “That’s none of your business.”

“That isn’t a no!” Korra said, pouncing gleefully on his words. “You _like_ me. You’re jealous because _you_ wanted me.”

“This is stupid. I’m with Asami.”

“But when you’re with her, you’re thinking about me, admit it!”

“Get over yourself!” he snapped.

“I’m just being honest.”

“You’re crazy!”

“You’re a liar!” Korra insisted, and on a sudden impulse, pressed her lips to his.

_Oh._

Under Asami’s clinging yin scent, she could smell Mako’s exciting yang musk. It was like when she hit puberty—she’d always been able to smell different scents, but suddenly the scents she’d calmly accepted as part of her world had provoked _feelings_ that were new. She’d never felt this way about a yang before, but it was good. Her mouth crushed into his, and he was kissing _back_ , roughly and angrily and somehow this was exactly what she’d wanted.

How had she been so stupid? All the times she’d been kept up at night, because Mako was driving her crazy. Mako, Mako, Mako, with that Asami, how dare he! How could she not have realized it would lead here?

Mako finally pulled away, but he wasn’t looking at her. Korra followed his gaze, and saw Bolin in the doorway, probably coming to check on Mako. They stared at each other across the arena court in horror.

_I just don’t think I’m attracted to yangs_.

She knew how this had to look. But she’d really never felt like this for a yang before.

That still probably wouldn’t make him feel any better about this.

Then Bolin broke into messy tears, and ran out into the night.

“Bolin, this isn’t what you think!” Mako called after him. “Great, look what you’ve done.”

“You’re blaming me?” Korra said.

“You kissed me!”

“You kissed _me_ back!”

Mako balled his fists. “What is _wrong_ with you, Korra? First Asami, then Bolin, then me? Do you even know what you want?”

“I wasn’t really interested in Bolin,” she said.

“Great, the one person who actually showed interest in you and wasn’t _seeing someone_.”

“I’m only interested in yins!” Korra insisted.

“Really? Because your lips were on mine not two seconds ago. You seemed pretty interested.”

“You’re…you’re _different_!” Korra said, then a terrible, wonderful idea came to her. “You’re a pervert, aren’t you?”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous, Korra.”

“You _are_! It’s the only explanation. I’ve never wanted to kiss a yang before.”

“And this has nothing to do with you being an inexperienced country rube with no idea of what you want. No, I must be half yin, because the world revolves around Korra.” He leaned in close, and Korra felt her pulse quicken with excitement. Dammit, a yang really never had done this to her before. She could smell him, boy and firebender and _yang_. “Get a good whiff, Korra, and get a hold of yourself.”

“At least you liked it _too_ ,” Korra said.

Mako turned from her in disgust and went after Bolin.

-

As powerful as an all-yang team of pro-benders was when they worked together, with strife between them they were a complete mess. There seemed to be resentment in every direction, and even when training the three of them barely spoke to each other. At least Mako had Asami for emotional support, Korra thought bitterly. She felt bad for Bolin, and would have liked to comfort him, but he was having none of it.

All in all, it was a miracle they scraped by at all. But they agreed, no matter what their differences, they should put that aside and focus on their goal. Sorting out this romantic mess could wait, but the championship could only be won now.

After pulling another close victory out of the hat, assuring their place in the finals, Korra was just taking a look at Bolin’s hurt shoulder when another team came into the locker room.

“Ooh, you boys smell something in here?” Tahno said, strutting in with his teammates in tow, his hand waving in front of his nose dramatically. “Oh, I know what that is. Smells like a bunch of frustrated yangs who can’t stop humping each other long enough to focus on the game.”

“I hope we see you in the finals match,” Korra said. “Then we’ll see who’s _frustrated_.”

Tahno just smiled knowingly as he walked towards the stadium. “I’m soaking my pants over here,” he shot back at them. Korra blushed brightly at that. There was no way he was serious, though she couldn’t quite stop herself from staring at his ass anyway.

She’d faced yins on other teams before, of course, but most yins seemed shyer about whatever attraction might exist between them, eager to put it aside and be taken seriously as contenders. Tahno’s yin scent didn’t make him more vulnerable, though, he seemed to use it like a weapon. And that was one fighting style Korra was seriously lacking training in.

“Don’t worry about him,” Bolin said derisively. “Maybe he’ll be having his heat or something and not show.”

Korra laughed. “Yeah. Serve him right.”

-

Nothing was going to stop this match. Not Amon’s threat, not the Council. Korra had recurring fantasies of how she’d humiliate that Tahno, and they were even edging out her thoughts about Asami and her so-wrong-it’s-right indulgences about Mako. It wasn’t just pro-bending, either. She had a few ways she’d thought of to shut Tahno up. Or make him scream her name.

It felt so much more comfortable, knowing what she was up against, than the scentless enigma that was Amon. Tahno was just some yin. Just some pro-bender. She’d beat him in the match and that’d be that. Nothing had gone right since she’d come to Republic City, but bending was the one thing she was good at. No way she’d screw this up.

The Wolfbats made their showy entrance, and at first Korra was unimpressed. Then something wafted over to her from their end of the stadium. Korra felt her palms get sweaty, her pulse rise.

“No _way_ ,” she hissed under her breath. “He isn’t. He can’t.”

Mako had definitely noticed too, by the way his pupils were dilated. “Oh, he is.”

“H-how can he even play like that?” Korra said. “Isn’t there some kind of rule?” She glanced up at the ref. They had to smell it. _Everyone_ had to smell it. Yangs in the stands were catcalling.

“Anti-discrimination laws. Yins in heat can do anything they can do the rest of the time,” Mako said, “or anything yangs can do for that matter.”

Korra’s mouth hung open. She’d started scenting the air, taking in deep breaths involuntarily. “But it’s impossible. We just saw him. Smelled him. He was nowhere _near_ his time.”

“There’s drugs that can bring on a heat early,” Mako said. “Illegal, of course, but we’d never prove it. We’d just look like a bunch of bitter yangs.” He patted Korra on the shoulder. “Hang in there. As bad as it is for us, it’s going to be worse for him, and he’s got a yang on his team, too,” he said, glancing at the firebender, “who’s going to be having the same problem we are. It’s the yin earthbender we have to watch out for. _He’s_ the only player in this game who’s gonna have it together.” He glanced at Bolin. “You doing okay there, Bo?”

Bolin was taking shallow breaths. “Yeah, I’ll manage. I’ve smelled better.”

“That’s the spirit. Come on,” Mako said, and closed his eyes tightly for a moment in an attempt to focus. “Remember. Get the earthbender.”

Both teams were called to the center of the ring. Korra stumbled forward, the sweet delirium of Tahno’s scent getting stronger. Her clit was freed from its folds, trapped by her uniform against her belly. It was hard as a rock and throbbing.

The two teams faced off, and when the bell rang Korra barely even heard it. Her movements were sluggish, the scent acting on her like a drug. It was way too strong, sickly sweet like overripe fruit, enough to make her head hurt, or maybe that was the lack of blood. She staggered towards Tahno, not even thinking, and heard the buzzer as she illegally crossed into his zone. They had to go a zone back as a penalty.

“Come on, Korra,” Mako hissed. “Don’t let him get to you. He’s gotta feel even worse than you right now, right? Don’t let him win.”

“He barely even looks affected,” Korra said. Tahno had a huge smirk on his face and a swing to his hips as he took up his position in the zone she’d just lost them. She tried to look for any signs that he was suffering from this too. Maybe his jaw was clenched a little hard, his lips pressed a bit tightly (they looked so soft), his neck held rigid (she would bury her nose in it, she would lick and nip) and she couldn’t be sure under the bulky uniforms, but he probably had a raging erection, and she’d guess he’d stuffed his underwear with something to catch the…fluids. (Not helping, not helping!)

But the game was on, and Korra quickly bent some water into her own face to cool herself off. She wasn’t letting this get to her. _Go after the earthbender_ , she reminded herself. But Tahno snapped her out of that with a punch of water to the face that she barely managed to dodge. Bolin had gotten a good shot in at the Wolfbats earthbender, Ming or something, and Tahno’s lip curled in annoyance. He shot a jet of water at Bolin, sending him back to zone three.

The lights changed, signaling the Wolfbats forward.

“What gives, ref, that was a hosing foul!” Mako yelled. The ref apparently disagreed.

And that wasn’t the last foul. Bending disks outside their zones, illegal icing moves, and none of it called by the refs. Worse still, they could hardly even bend properly. Mako had trouble keeping his fire within the rules, and Korra didn’t envy him one bit. She thought if she tried to firebend right now she’d incinerate the whole arena.

They’d have been out of the game entirely in short order if she hadn’t grabbed both Mako’s hand and the edge of the arena, and tossed Mako back into play. It was a relief to drop into the drink after that, just to soak her head for a minute.

Back in the ring, she huddled with Mako and Bolin before round two.

“What’s wrong with these refs?” Korra asked, but she had the sinking feeling she already knew.

“Probably yangs that got a whiff of that one,” Mako grumbled. “If he didn’t just pay them off to be safe.”

“Great. Well, if he can get away with it, we need to fight dirty too.”

“No, we can’t,” Mako said. “It’s pretty clear whose side the refs are on—the moment you crossed over the line they called a foul. If we’re going to win this, it needs to be fair and square.”

Korra groaned. “That’s no fun…but all right.”

The next round was tense, but even fighting more of Tahno’s ice and their own bodies, they managed to pull out a tie. They held their breaths during the coin toss. If the Wolfbats won, surely they’d send Ming to clean up. But in some small stroke of luck, the Fire Ferrets got to choose.

Korra leaned in towards Mako. “You said he’s gotta be feeling it worse than us, right? Let me take it.”

Mako looked dubious. “Are you sure you can handle being that up close and personal with him?”

“He’d better worry about being that up close and personal with _me_ ,” Korra said, stepping forward.

It was really just rage, at all the taunting and cheating and teasing, Korra told herself. This had nothing to do with wanting an excuse to be near him. “You and me, pretty boy,” she said.

Tahno smirked like he wouldn’t have had it any other way. “I thought you’d never ask,” he said. As he stepped onto the platform, Korra couldn’t help but notice the way he moved, smooth and sensuous and _oily_ in a way that got under her skin. And into different parts of her.

Korra didn’t know a lot about yins, and she’d never met one in heat before, but from what she’d read, the heats were almost unbearable. She’d imagined it more as climbing up the walls, grinding against any firm surface. How come she was the one who felt like she was rattling apart at the seams, then?

She put on a show of confidence. “Don’t get too excited and throw yourself at me,” she said.

Tahno raised an eyebrow, glancing at the straining erection her uniform couldn’t quite hide. “The difference between us, little girl,” he said, “is I’m used to this.” They paced around each other, waiting for an opening. “Don’t tell me this is your first time?” he said, his eyes gleaming with delight when Korra didn’t have an answer for that.

Korra feinted with a small stream of water, and when Tahno dodged, took her chance and hit him hard with a bigger jet right under the jaw. Tahno’s helmet went flying into the stands, and he fell over backwards without any more of a fight.

She bent over, hands on her knees, breathing hard. So it _was_ putting him off his game too. Maybe she had a chance. If she could just hold herself together long enough.

The third round started. This was it, whoever took this one would take the game.

They all played a bit sloppily, and the Wolfbats continued to cheat. It seemed like they’d barely even traded a few wobbly blows before it was over, and Tahno knocked them out of the ring with water laced with rocks.

Korra distinctly remembered being filled with loathing and so frustrated she could fuck a hole in the wall, and greatly wishing something would knock that Tahno down a few pegs.

She got her wish, and regretted it.

-

Tahno pulled himself out of the water, rolling over on the slab like a beached elephant trout. Between the cocktail of hormones burning through his body and the terror, he couldn’t stop shaking. He could barely even breathe.

There was a hand on his shoulder. Shaozu. “Are you okay?”

Tahno glanced at him, then slumped back down. “Just leave me here to die.”

“Come on, let’s get him out of here,” Ming was saying. They each hooked a hand under an armpit. “Up you go.”

Tahno halfheartedly went along with it enough to get his feet under him, then immediately bent forward, wretchedly dry-heaving. There wasn’t even anything in his system—the curse of being a male yin, his heat basically shut down his digestive system and made sure he wouldn’t want to eat anything.

It was all too much. He’d been sure he was going to be raped up there, and the worst part was, he’d thought maybe he could endure that if Amon had just left him with his bending intact. But Amon had been completely unaffected by his scent, and had done the worst possible thing to him out of quite a few terrible, humiliating, violating things that had been possible, or even probable.

He’d nearly drowned.

He was still shaking. He could feel it, soaked into his clothes, the dead, useless water. His dead, useless body. His body that was still burning red-hot, only now it had taken on a sickly, feverish tone. This was worse than normal heats. The drugs were taking him on a nightmare ride he couldn’t get off. Had he just wished Amon would rape him to save his bending? Or would Amon have been doing him a _favor_? The tears pricked at his eyes.

“Come on,” Ming said again, and they dragged him towards the locker room.

Tahno knew some yins felt otherwise, but he’d never thought of his heats as degrading. If anything, it was a time of power, of knowing what he wanted and usually having the ability to get it. But in the span of a few minutes, Amon had taken that from him. Tahno felt less like he was riding high on it, and more like he was being dragged behind it. His body couldn’t take this. It couldn’t take any more. He leaned a little harder on Shaozu, breathing in his heady yang scent. “Please,” he whispered, his voice rough and breathy. He didn’t even know if he could handle being fucked without heaving again, but he wasn’t sure he could handle _not_ being fucked, either.

He got put down on a bench, and just slumped there, shaking and crying and wanting to crawl into some deep, dark hole far away from everything and not come out for a whole year. Preferably without his body. It wasn’t good for anything anyway.

“Hey. Tahno,” Ming was saying. He helped peel Tahno out of his soaking wet clothes, his breath hitching, almost like choking, whenever Ming touched his erection, or the clothes slid over it on their way off. Tahno lay there, damp and naked, making no attempt to cover himself, and told Ming the combination to his locker so he could get him his clothes.

The shaking had gone down to a fine tremor. He still wanted to throw up.

Ming tried to towel-dry him a bit before putting his dry clothes on, but every inch of his skin was sensitive, and he writhed involuntarily in pleasure. “I know, I know,” Ming said gently, trying to stimulate him as little as possible. “Let’s just get you home.”

“Healer,” Tahno choked out.

“It can wait,” Ming said. “You’re in no condition.”

But Tahno had a terrible fear in him that this might be one of those things that could only be treated if caught early. The window for fixing it could be closing now, as he leaned uselessly on Ming and breathed him in and thought, _yes, he’ll do._ “I’m fine,” he said.

Ming actually laughed, an ugly, alien sound in that unreal moment. “No, Tahno, look at yourself.”

Tahno gazed into Ming’s eyes a moment, feeling the blood hot in his face, knowing his lips would be red and swollen, his cheeks flushed, his eyes dilated. “Help me out a bit first, then.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” Ming said.

“You said it yourself. Look at me. If it’s not you, it’s going to be someone. And the last thing I need is to get knocked up tonight,” he laughed bitterly, “on top of _everything_. I know it’s probably not how you wanted to spend your evening, but…you know I’d do it for you.”

“I’m taking you home,” Ming said. “Lock the door behind you, and if the spirits have any mercy, maybe you can sleep this off.”

“Shaozu,” Tahno said, and saw Shaozu, already on the opposite side of the room, jump like a kid caught sneaking sweets.

“I, uh…I should go,” Shaozu said. “S-sorry,” he choked out.

“Please, walk me home,” Tahno said. “Look at us. A couple of yins, one of them reeking of heat, in our _condition_.” He looked at Shaozu, much more vulnerable than he’d ever let himself be around him. He saw the instincts warring in Shaozu, that powerful yang protective urge, and the knowledge that he was everything Tahno needed protecting _from._

“All right,” Shaozu said, with a gulp. “Just to the door.”

On the walk home, Tahno took of his jacket and left it on the ground, and would have taken his shirt off too if his teammates had let him. He supposed theoretically it was freezing out, judging by the amount of snow. But the snow, like the cold, might as well have not been there. He couldn’t _feel_ it.

When they got to the turn for Ming’s place, Tahno told Ming he should go. “Why should this wretched night be any longer than it has to be for any of us?” he asked.

Ming looked in the direction of his nice, warm bed, sorely tempted. “I can’t leave you alone with him, though,” he said.

“Shaozu would never hurt me,” Tahno said. “And honestly…I don’t really feel up to that kind of thing right now. You’re right. It’s a bad idea.”

Ming just looked at him dubiously.

“I mean, yeah, my body’s doing _things_ ,” Tahno said, “but I also feel like puking and I feel like Amon ripped a _chunk_ out of me and every time I think about it I shake and I can’t stop crying—” he broke off, his voice wavering. “I don’t think sex with me would be good for me or anyone else right now. I just want to curl up in bed until this passes.”

“All right,” Ming said. “I’ll come check on you tomorrow. And Shaozu…Tahno trusts you. Be worthy of that.”

Shaozu nodded, and they continued on to Tahno’s building. When they’d gotten up to his penthouse suite, Tahno hesitated at the door.

“You’re all the way across town in the other direction, aren’t you?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” Shaozu said. “I needed to make sure you got home safe.”

“Mm,” Tahno agreed. “And here we are.” He let the door swing open a little wider; an invitation.

“I…really don’t think I should,” Shaozu said, taking a step back. “S-something might happen.”

“Would it be so terrible if something _did_ happen?” Tahno said, almost a whine.

“But everything you said back there—”

“Had to get rid of that stick-in-the-mud somehow,” Tahno said. He took a step forward, then another, and pressed his body flush against Shaozu’s. He both heard and felt Shaozu’s little gasp at smelling him so close, at _feeling_ him. The tight control he’d managed during the match seemed worlds away now. His body was so exhausted he thought he might collapse before they even got to do anything, but his mind didn’t have anything left to fight it. “Our bodies both want this. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

“You might not feel that way about it once you come out of heat,” Shaozu said. His breaths were shallow, and his eyes fluttered with the effort of maintaining control.

“Or maybe I’ll be grateful to you for making this miserable night a little easier to bear,” Tahno said. “Don’t act like my body’s any more out of control than yours right now. You yangs are always acting like yins can’t know what they want when they’re in heat, but no one thinks yangs might not really want something, and they act like they’re in heat every _day_.”

Shaozu put his hands on Tahno’s shoulders and guided him into the apartment, and for a moment Tahno thought, _yes, finally_ , but as soon as they were inside, Shaozu stepped back out, closing the door behind him.

Tahno slumped against the door, and heard the scrape of Shaozu’s hand brushing the other side, full of regret. “S-sorry,” Shaozu said, and then Tahno heard his footsteps as he walked away.

His knees buckled, and he slid down the door miserably. He hated this. Feeling weak. Out of control. He wasn’t weak, just because he was a yin. He’d _made_ his body do this. It was _his_ heat.

He curled up and hugged his knees, sobbing. After a while of that, he got up stiffly and tried to go to bed, but tossed and turned with the sheets kicked down to a knot at his feet, sweating and feeling the futon press against his body with an acute awareness. He had some toys he could use, but he knew from experience that once he started doing that he’d never _stop_ , and he was really desperate to get some sleep if he could. But between the demands of his body, and the idea he couldn’t shake that maybe he had to see a healer _now_ if he ever wanted his bending back (because it wasn’t going to be permanent, it couldn’t be) he realized sleep was a lost cause.

Heavily, he dragged himself to his feet, and went to the bathroom to try to fix himself up a bit. He went to clean his face, to try to cool down and wake himself up a bit, but ended up just letting the cold water run over his hands for a minute, before shaking himself out of it and finally splashing his fevered, tear-streaked cheeks.

He was lucky, he supposed. No one really gave him any trouble, walking alone at night smelling like he did, though part of him was beyond caring if anyone actually did try to make something happen. The worst he got was some rudely shouted suggestions involving the direction of the nearest yinhouse. He bristled at that. He had a right to be here as much as anyone.

He went to one healer, then the next, his hopes fading as the streetlights went out one by one, until the last one was snuffed and he was left in the dark.

-

The moment she got back to the police station, she recognized that scent. She didn’t think she could forget it.

“Hey, Korra.”

“Tahno?” she said. If it weren’t for the scent she wasn’t sure she’d have recognized him. He looked absolutely exhausted, like he’d been crying all night. His clothes were mismatched, his hair in disarray, his shoulders slumped, and there was no more spark of a challenge in the way he looked at her. He was still flushed with heat, poor thing, but from the looks of him, it was just taking up resources he didn’t have. Her heart ached, and it wasn’t just natural yang protectiveness. She’d never wanted to see this happen to anyone.

She sat down next to him on the bench, neither unnaturally far or very close. She’d have liked to have hugged him or put an arm around him, but realized he could feel pretty threatened by that, in his condition and her being a yang and all. His scent was much stronger this close up, and it did give Korra a warm, glowing feeling inside she couldn’t entirely ignore, but somehow all of that seemed much less important now. His smell didn’t seem sickly-sweet or _wrong_ to her, it was just a scent, albeit a strong one, and actually a kind of nice one once you got used to it. And there were more pressing things by far than the urge to mate, like for example a human being in pain right in front of her.

“Listen, I know we weren’t exactly best friends,” Korra began, unsure how to bridge the gap of everything that had passed between them, but knowing she had to try, “but I’m sorry Amon took your bending.” She was actually sorry for even more than that. Maybe he’d been wrong to cheat, but she’d still been a stupid, mindless yang the whole time, thinking with her knot. She held out her hand, palm up, in a gesture of comfort.

Tahno looked at the proffered hand in surprise, and Korra realized she must have gone too far. “Sorry,” she said, pulling back slightly, “you don’t need to. Augh, what was I thinking, you must have yangs crawling all over you right now. I didn’t mean to get in your space, I swear I wasn’t going to get weird, I just…you looked like you could use a friend. Platonically,” she blurted. “Platonic friend. Avatar’s honor.”

Tahno half-smiled at her through his misery, and reached across the bench to take her hand. Korra’s heart skipped a beat and the warmth spread through her as she felt his fever-hot fingers wind through hers. The haze threatened to cloud her head, but it felt amazing to be so trusted, even if she probably didn’t deserve it based on her actions. He’d know the effect he was having on her, yet he still gave her the benefit of the doubt that she could actually be trying to help, one human being to another. That seemed such a basic thing, but so many yangs couldn’t even give yins that, especially at this time.

“I’ve been to the best healers in the city,” Tahno said, and he looked about to cry, but Korra gave his hand a little squeeze, and he rallied. “Whatever Amon did to me…it’s permanent.”

She’d suspected that, but…it was still horrible to hear. She didn’t think she’d seen anyone more wretched than Tahno in the state he was in. She couldn’t think of anything to say that could possibly help, so she just squeezed his hand again, tighter, and felt him squeeze back.

“You’ve gotta get him for me,” he said. Korra gave a firm nod at this, hoping desperately she seemed confident and capable, that her strength would be some kind of comfort to him. But Tahno wasn’t some helpless, delicate yin like in romance novels. Just yesterday he’d had plenty of strength of his own. A yang mantra she’d been taught at the compound was that true strength wasn’t yang instincts—it’s the self-control that holds them back. If that was true, and heats were as powerful as they said, Tahno was a lot stronger than her, by the poise and control he’d shown during the match. And even in those last moments of terror against Amon, she’d heard him beg, but he’d never asked anyone else for help.

He was asking for it now. He knew he was beaten.

“We’re ready for you now,” Tenzin said to Tahno, and his hand slipped out of hers.

“You’d better not have been causing any trouble,” Lin said sternly to Korra. “I can tell her to leave if—”

“It’s fine,” Tahno said. “She wasn’t bothering me.” He turned back to her one last time. “See you around, _Avatar_.” There was that ghost of a smile on his face, maybe the tiniest flicker of that old spirit.

Amon would _pay_ for this.

Korra didn’t get up, though. She couldn’t stop thinking about Tahno in there, if he’d be all right. She had the instinct to sniff the hand he’d held, or maybe roll around on the bench where he’d been sitting, but realized that would be really inappropriate. She’d fucked up enough here. She wasn’t going to make this situation worse.

Still, just by sitting there, she was passively getting some of his scent that lingered in the air. She told herself this could hardly be avoided, and besides, if she was going to be any use to him, she’d have to be able to handle a little fragrance.

The time passed quickly, and when he came back out, probably almost an hour later, and looking even worse for wear if at all possible, he paused at the sight of her, surprised and possibly not in the good way.

“Hey,” Korra said, then at his hesitation, “S-sorry, I can go if you want.”

“You stayed for me?”

“Yeah. I was actually finished up here when I…saw you. Look, you can tell me I’m being overprotective and I’ll get lost, promise, but I was worried about you getting home safe.”

“I got here fine. I can get home,” Tahno said, then paused. “But you can still walk with me, if you’d like.”

She got up and went to his side, and they left the police station together. “This way,” he said.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said after they’d walked maybe half a block in silence. “I mean, not that I don’t appreciate the thought, but…it’d mean even more to me if you were catching Amon right now.”

“I did some work with the cops this morning. They’re working on hunting down leads. Believe me, we’re going to find him. But I can’t hunt Amon every second, and you’re important too.”

Tahno blinked in dull surprise. “You’ve certainly changed.”

Korra thought of Amon slipping through her fingers last night, how helpless she’d felt. The moment when who won the finals match had suddenly become absurdly trivial. “Everything’s different.”

Tahno just nodded. “You’re kind of all right, actually. Sorry about all the, you know…ice, and rocks in the water and stuff.”

“It’s just a stupid game,” Korra said. “I don’t even care about that now.”

“Still,” Tahno said. “If I’d known that was going to be my last game…I’d have made it a better one.”

Korra could kick herself. It wasn’t just a stupid game. Not for him. “Look,” she said. “I’m really sorry. I know I was a pretty big jerk before too.”

Tahno smirked a bit. “Yeah, you kind of were.”

“Well, I feel really bad about that now.”

Tahno gave her a friendly clap on the shoulder. Part of his hand touched her bare skin, and she could feel the heat of it. He really was burning up. “Guess that protective yang instinct kicked in once you saw me laid low, huh?”

“What? No,” Korra said. “I was just stupid before, I got my feelings way too caught up in something immature. I don’t think we ever should have been enemies to begin with. Just because we were on rival teams….” She trailed off, not wanting to rub in that they couldn’t even be that anymore.

But Tahno seemed satisfied by this. “Yeah. We’re not enemies. Amon is our enemy.”

“Hey,” Korra said, noticing they were in an area with some good restaurants, “you want to get lunch or something? My treat.”

“Not really,” Tahno said. “Sorry, I just…kind of need to curl up and die right now, and bed seems like the best place to do that.”

“Okay. Maybe some other time,” she said hopefully.

“Yeah. Maybe some time when we’re not getting stared at by everyone and I can actually keep food down and won’t hump the chair.” He flushed a bit brighter. “Sorry. Too much information. I just feel a little….” he said, and wobbled on his feet. She caught him by the shoulders to steady him, and Tahno leaned in towards her, pressed against her chest. Her nose came up right about to the place where his neck met his shoulder, and the scent wafted powerfully off his skin there, his shirt hanging half-open. Korra lost a few seconds there, and hoped she hadn’t groaned or anything embarrassing like that.

“Are you all right?” she asked. She didn’t push him away, but didn’t do anything with him, either.

“Heh,” Tahno said. “What do you _think_?”

“I…uh, I think….” Korra stammered. She wasn’t doing a heck of a lot of thinking at the moment, truth to be told. Most of her effort was being spent _not_ thinking things.

“Hey, get a room,” someone yelled at them.

Korra made an obscene gesture at them, and was about to start something, when Tahno said, “It’s all right. Let’s not make a scene.” From what she knew of him, he was usually all about spectacle, but she could understand him not being in the mood for any of that at the moment.

They got to Tahno’s apartment, and after unlocking the door, he turned to her and touched her hand gently, not quite taking it. “I, uh, don’t know if you’re busy, but…if you’ve got the time, you could stay a bit with me.” He paused, and when Korra didn’t know quite how to respond, he added, “I just really don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Don’t you have, uh, friends you could call?” Korra asked.

“I thought _we_ were friends now,” Tahno said. “Besides, Shaozu and Ming are probably almost as bad off—well, maybe they actually got some sleep last night, but still. And my other friends….” his voice dropped low. “They’ve never really seen me like this. I don’t know how they’d….look, Korra, I know we got off to a rocky start, but you’ve been great today. You don’t treat me like my touch is going to poison you. And I know from yesterday, that, well, I have a pretty strong effect on you. So I really appreciate you putting those feelings aside for me.”

Korra nodded, and stepped forward into the apartment with him. “It seems like the least I could do,” she said.

Tahno leaned forward, and as the door clicked shut next to her, his face was suddenly very close to hers, his breath hot on her lips, and with a sense of inevitability, as if nothing else could happen, he kissed her. Excitement raced through every inch of Korra’s body, those full lips on hers, his wet tongue, full of need, the scent of his heat drowning her. She kissed back.

It was a hard kiss to break, both because she was pinned against the wall and because she didn’t actually want to. She didn’t want to just shove him back rudely either like he’d done something wrong, remembering her disastrous kiss with Mako. Sometimes people just got a little…carried away. She very gently pressed her hand on his chest, just below his neck, and brought her head back while tilting her face down, using their height difference to make her mouth harder for him to reach.

That ended the kiss, and left her pressed up against the wall by him, her hand on the bare skin of his chest where his shirt was open. She could feel his sweat.

“I was just going to say,” Tahno began, and oh spirits his voice seemed an octave lower and breathy, like he’d only just managed to find it again after being fucked out of his mind, except they’d barely even done _anything_ , “that while I appreciate your restraint, you don’t actually have to. I want you.” He smirked, almost drunkenly. “But then that seemed like too many words, so I just kissed you. You seemed to like it.”

“I…did,” Korra admitted. “But I’ve already been enough of a jerk. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Take advantage,” Tahno repeated bitterly, taking a step back and finally giving Korra a few inches of space to breathe, “say what you mean. You don’t want to _rape_ me? Is that what you think this is?”

“I don’t know,” Korra said. “Is it? I don’t want you to hate me later because I acted selfishly when you couldn’t say no. And I’d…hate myself if that happened too.”

“If you’re starving, does that mean you can’t consent to eating food?” Tahno asked. “And hey, maybe it’d lower your standards a bit, but you were _starving_. You still wouldn’t regret eating later. Your body can have needs and you can still make decisions about how to meet them. And food tastes _better_ when you’re hungry.” He took one of her hands and brought it to his mouth and sucked on her fingers. Korra’s breath quickened. It was _impossible_ not to think about that mouth going somewhere else, _fuck_.

“Be honest with me, Korra,” he said, and slipped one of her fingers into his mouth again, releasing it far too soon, “If you weren’t worried about _me_ , if you had perfect knowledge somehow that I was a hundred percent okay with this, would you fuck me?”

“Yeah,” Korra said, without any hesitation. “I’d fuck you into next week.” She forced herself to clear her head of those thoughts. “But…people have taken enough from you right now. If I just took what I wanted from you too….”

“Have you ever considered, Avatar Korra, that you wouldn’t be taking anything from me…you’d be giving me something?”

“I…”

“What, Korra, do you want to hear me beg? Twice in as many days? Okay, _please_ , Korra. Please fuck me.”

She’d resisted really well so far, hadn’t she? But there wasn’t _anyone_ who could stand up to that, surely. “Will you remember all of this?” she asked.

“Yep. Every sordid detail.”

She took a hesitant step towards him. “You’ll remember that you begged me to do this. That you wanted this.”

“Oh, for spirits’ sakes, Korra, I will send you a bouquet of fucking roses. Can we stop _talking_ now?”

Korra more or less lunged at him, pushing him back against the wall and kissing him like her life depended on it. Her hands slipped up under his shirt, running over his smooth, taut muscles, and he nearly _melted_ at that. She was pretty sure his knees had buckled and her weight was the only thing keeping him up against the wall. Her clit was achingly hard, and she wondered if it would be best to turn him around or let him wrap his legs around her waist.

“Wait,” Korra said, pulling back from him slightly, then catching him as he started to slide to the ground, “wait a second.”

Tahno groaned. “What _now_?”

“Won’t you get pregnant?”

He laughed. “You really are inexperienced. Don’t knot in me, stupid.”

“What? Then…how do we….”

“There are _other_ things we can do that’ll feel good. Have some imagination.”

She tried to think what those could be. She knew male yins had vestigial penises, and they probably weren’t that different from her clit. She could make him feel good at least, even if it wouldn’t give her much satisfaction. She was _giving_ him something, not _taking_ , she reminded herself. He needed relief a lot more than she did. So she kissed him again, and this time slipped a hand down his pants, where the heat in his body actually seemed to _radiate_. He was smaller than her, but there was still plenty to grab, and getting a good grip on him, she started stroking him like she would have stroked herself.

But instead of melting like butter again, Tahno made a sound somewhere between “ah” and a choked breath, and put his hands over hers to still it.

“Sorry,” Korra said, stopping and releasing him. “You don’t like that?”

“It’s, ah,” Tahno said, a bit short of breath, “feels really intense, kinda hurts. You really haven’t been with a yin boy before, have you?”

“Sorry,” Korra said again. “Guess I’m not too good at this.”

“Shh, you’re perfect,” Tahno said, and kissed her. “First time for everything. I guess I really _am_ going to give you those private lessons then. Okay then, books open,” he said, undoing the fastenings on his pants. “Yin dicks are like, really sensitive. So you can’t just grab them and start jerking them off. You’ve got to be a little more gentle. Especially when they’ve been hard a long time without any kind of fucking, then it starts to _hurt_. It helps if you do this too,” he said, and licked her hand, getting her palm and fingers wet and slick, then guiding her hand to his penis. It seemed to be straining at her, very hot to the touch, the head an angry red, yet she touched it so slowly and carefully she would have thought she’d only be torturing him more.

Tahno’s breath came faster. “Ahh, yes, that’s….yes,” he said. The only time she seemed to do something wrong was when she touched the head directly, but when she very slowly, gently drew the foreskin up over the head, only the lightest bit of pressure on it, and slowly back down again, he seemed to like that a _lot_. Encouraged, she reached into his pants with her other hand, probing between his legs, past his balls and into his hot, wet crease. He was wearing a heat pad under his pants, which explained how he’d managed to walk around without a stain running down his legs, and she could feel its dampness. Experimentally, she brushed a fingertip against the slick ridges of his hole, and he gasped with pleasure. She paused, not wanting to make the same mistake again of doing too much too hard and hurting him, but Tahno just nodded, so she slid a finger inside.

He was _so_ hot and wet and tight, and Korra’s mind barely even held thoughts anymore, she just knew she wanted to pound him here as hard as she could and knot in him. But that was the _one_ thing he’d said not to do. He was pressing against her finger, though, begging for _more_ , so she slid a second in, and a third, but she wasn’t sure how hard or fast to go, so she let him work himself on them. He was writhing against the wall, hips thrusting back and forth against her fingers, making desperate little moans and seeming to have a lot of trouble keeping his feet under him. His knees started to buckle, and Korra had to pull out to catch him.

“We should do this in bed,” she said.

Tahno wasn’t able to make much of a coherent reply, but seemed eager to go wherever she was going. This seemed like it would be a lot easier if they were both naked, so Korra started pulling her clothes off once they got to the bedroom, and Tahno followed suit.

Once they were in bed, Tahno was looking at her erect clit with intense interest. For a moment she was terrified he would ask her to fuck him with it, and didn’t know if she had enough willpower left to refuse. But instead he ran his fingers over it lightly, then brought his mouth to it, at first just _breathing_ on it, then licking just enough to drive her mad.

“Y-you know, it’s not like your dick, you don’t have to be so dainty with it,” Korra choked out.

“Oh, I know,” Tahno said, smirking. “But you yangs are so fun to tease.” Even so, he leaned forward and took her into his mouth, and now he was very much not teasing, working her hard with mouth and tongue and hands. The pleasure was mounting, and fast. She’d never felt anything this good before.

Through the haze of pleasure, she noticed Tahno was grinding his hips to the rhythm he kept with his head, probably imagining the clit in his mouth thrusting _there_ instead. He took one of his hands away from her and began fingering himself, moaning around her clit, and that was just too much, too much. “I’m…I’m gonna,” she groaned, and spasmed, and Tahno grasped her knot hard, with both hands, as it swelled in his grip.

She was lucky he knew more about yangs than she did about yins. The pressure there was _exactly_ what she needed, as she’d learned from her own private experimentation. Without that, her knot would swell but she wouldn’t ejaculate, and that was a pretty frustrating, even painful feeling. With a final moan, she came in a series of hot, voluminous spurts, and Tahno did his best to swallow it, though there was so _much_ some of it just ran out of his mouth. By the way he tried to get as much of it as he could, she thought either she had to taste amazing to him, or his heat instinct was telling him to get as much of the stuff in his body as possible, and that was the only way he could do it safely.

He continued to grip her knot, though he was unable to touch himself at the same time, and she saw his hips grinding a bit in frustration and need. Waves of well-being and exhaustion swept over Korra; she felt very safe and very good and sleep came to wrap around her like a nice, warm blanket.

“Ah, no, stay with me,” Tahno said. He let go of her knot, and it throbbed dully, but she was too far gone for that to matter much now. He moved up her body and tried to kiss her, but she could barely even seem to move her lips in response. “Come on, please,” he said, desperation in his voice. “Don’t do this, don’t fall….”

-

She woke up alone in Tahno’s bed, the evening light slanting through the windows. She felt good, really good, amazing actually. Then she remembered how she ended up here, and sat up abruptly.

“Tahno?”

She could hear water running, and followed it to the shower. Tahno was lying naked in the tub, water pouring over him, fucking himself relentlessly with a dildo. It should have been the hottest thing she’d ever seen, but instead she thought it might be the saddest. He looked completely exhausted, at the end of his rope, like he barely had the strength in his arms to keep thrusting, but couldn’t stop, either. Even his moans seemed halfway between pleasure and desperate crying.

“Tahno,” she said, to get his attention.

He looked up at her, startled, and if he’d been at all humiliated by the situation he was in, she still didn’t think he had it in him to stop. Dignity seemed to be a lost cause at this point. “Hey,” he managed to choke out. “Sleep well, you lucky rotten bastard?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t…I lost control.”

“I really should have known better than to get an inexperienced teenaged yang off right away,” Tahno said. “I’ve been kicking myself this whole time. Well, and doing other things to myself,” he said, with a slight smirk. “Wanna help, now that you’re up?”

Korra came closer and reached her hand under the stream of water, but jerked it back quickly. “It’s ice cold! You’re going to freeze yourself to death!”

“Oh,” Tahno panted. “Is it cold?”

She turned the tap off, and hauled him to his feet. His skin was cold from the water, though he was still hot under his arms, still burning. “How long do these last?” she asked, guiding him towards the bed with him leaning on her heavily.

“Anywhere from one to four days. This is day two,” he said. “No offense, and we’re having a blast and all, but if this lasts four days I think I’m going to die.”

“None taken,” Korra said. “And you can’t…sleep or anything?”

“Sometimes,” he said, with a bit of a groan. “Not happening this time. I’ve had some that lasted three days solid with no sleep. Can’t sleep, can’t really eat, can’t get rid of this _fucking_ erection no matter how sore it gets. Oh, don’t you dare feel _sorry_ for me, Avatar, I get to complain about my body, but you don’t get to look at me like that. At least I’m not a raging knothead all the time.”

He was right, and she knew it wasn’t helping to pity him, but the Tahno that lay drenched wet on the bed before her, dildo still sticking out of his ass, was a lot more pathetic than he was sexy. “So uh,” Korra said, “I guess I should make up for before.”

Tahno nodded. “It’s either you or in the shower by myself, and not only are you hot, but my arms are about to fall off, so by all means.”

Korra grasped the dildo by its base. It was smooth and off-white, probably carved from saber-toothed tiger seal ivory or baleen. It had a wide hilt to prevent it from being inserted too far, and just before that was a carved knot. Tahno seemed content to just let her do as she would with him, which all things considered, was understandable. Tired as he was, though, he couldn’t restrain his body’s reactions to what she was doing, and he twisted and moaned with pleasure as she worked the dildo in him. It almost felt cruel, forcing him to writhe and cry out and buck up against her when he looked on the brink of collapse, but when she slowed down he’d whine and beg for her to keep going.

There didn’t seem to be such a thing as thrusting ‘too hard,’ and the more Korra gave him, the more he seemed to appreciate it. She realized she hadn’t seen him come, and didn’t know if he had while she was asleep, but thought it might give him a bit of relief, and maybe even let him sleep for a few minutes if he was lucky. She didn’t just pound him, either; his whole body seemed to be very sensitive, and he liked it a lot when she ran her free hand over him.

Still, though, if he was close, she had no idea. Yins were such a mystery to her.

After this had seemed to go on for a while, she tried giving his cock a cautious lick. He approved of this so long as she went very slowly and carefully there, and combined with the thrusting it seemed to be putting him in a very good place indeed.

Korra hadn’t thought that anyone in such a sorry state could arouse her, but the scent that filled the room was powerful, and her body couldn’t help but respond to the sights and sounds of all the pleasure she was giving Tahno either. She tried not to think about it, but she was rock hard again, and the frustration was mounting. She told herself once she’d made him come, she’d jerk herself off real quick, then see if he needed anything else. But it went on, and on.

The sun went down, and since neither of them could be bothered to light a lamp, soon the bed was illuminated only by the glow of city lights coming through the window. Korra’s shoulders burned, and her neck was stiff. It wasn’t the _only_ thing that was stiff.

Had he actually come hundreds of times and she just didn’t realize? Were yin orgasms that different? Was she just bad at this? He didn’t _look_ like she was bad at this.

Finally, she stopped, sweating and breathing hard. Tahno strained for a moment against the contact that was no longer there. “It’s…okay,” he breathed after a moment. “You…you were good. I can get you off if you need a break.”

“What about you?”

He grunted slightly and rolled over, into a better position to reach the handle of the dildo. “I’ll get through it. It can’t last forever.”

“What happens if you get too tired to do that?”

His shoulder twitched in a half-hearted shrug. “Lie there and hurt.”

“I could take you to a yinhouse….”

Tahno shook his head with a slight shudder. “I’d rather lie there and hurt at home, if it came to that.”

Korra didn’t quite understand why he’d had that reaction to it, but she had to admit she didn’t exactly know what went on in yinhouses. It wasn’t a place she could go.

But she had a more pressing question. “Did you, uh, come? Before?”

He laughed a little, and any laugh in his condition was a gallows laugh. “You don’t know much about yins, do you.”

Korra frowned. “That’s why I asked. What, I mean…do you not? At all?”

“Oh, no, no, we do. They’re pretty easy when I’m not in heat, though not very impressive.” At her questioning look, he added, “I might not want it much when I’m out of heat, but if I try I can still get a bit of a reaction going. Nothing like _this_ ,” he said, gesturing over his exhausted, fevered body with his free hand, “but this is kind of overkill anyway. But…yeah, during a heat, it’s real easy to feel good. _Everything_ feels good. And if you don’t do things to feel good you feel very, very bad, so you keep doing those things. But for some reason, it’s really hard to come. It’s like my body doesn’t want me to finish, it just wants to keep going and going.”

Korra stopped herself from saying ‘That’s awful,’ remembering how touchy he got about her pitying things about being a yin. _He_ got to complain about it, but she couldn’t agree. “Maybe it feels a bit like when my knot swells up but there’s no pressure on it so I can’t come,” she offered. That wasn’t a pleasant feeling either, and at least by comparing a yang feeling, she wasn’t making it seem like she was better than him.

Tahno half-smiled. “I don’t think it’s quite the same.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Korra asked. “Anything you really like?”

“Hah. Well. I’d probably come if you knotted in me,” he said.

“But we can’t.”

He nodded and agreed. “We can’t.”

“How do you know that would work?”

“It’s common knowledge. Being knotted is pretty special. There’s…pheromones or some shit, I don’t even know, don’t ask me, do I look like I can remember biology lessons right now? Don’t they teach you anything at the South Pole?”

“Apparently not.”

“It just sort of…fits like a key in a lock,” he said. “Just like that.” He worked the dildo in his ass harder, though his arm was shaking from exhaustion.

“Come on, give me that,” she said, putting her hand over his gently. He released it to her. “Turn over,” she said roughly, rolling him over on his belly, the better to reach his ass. She climbed on top of him, working the dildo in him, and laid over his back, kissing and biting his neck and shoulders while she thrust into him, her clitoris pressed against his back.

“Oh baby,” Tahno said, as she nipped him a bit hard. “I like that. Keep going.” As she went on, he repeated those last two words a few times, like a mantra. “Keep going, Korra. It can’t last forever.”

She moved a bit further down his body, and thrust her clit between his thighs, which were already soaked with his fluids. She thrust the dildo in time with it, imagining finally getting to fuck that ass she’d been plumbing with a hard stick for hours, finally getting to feel her knot sink into that warm, well-used hole. Exhaustion was beginning to put her in a sort of trance state, along with the primal, repetitive motion of in-out, in-out, the friction of his thighs on her clit, that maddening, sweet heat musk. Barely even thinking, she drew the dildo out all the way, then plunged it in again, then drew it out and let her clit slide between his slick asscheeks, over the dimple of his hole then back down to it.

Tahno turned around and looked at her. “Wait, no, don’t!” he managed to say. The sight of his face snapped her out of it—he was terrified.

“Sorry,” she said, pulling back, then she kissed him. “Sorry, I’d never. I don’t ever want to see you hurt or scared like that.”

He kissed her back, and clung to her. “I’m glad you stopped,” he said softly. “But…a little sorry you stopped, too.”

“Sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to….”

“I thought if you did, that’d be perfect…I wouldn’t have to hate myself later for letting you, but I’d get to feel it.”

“You’d just hate me,” she said.

“It’d be easier on me.” He moaned a little, pressing against her. “Maybe we should just do it.”

“What? No, Tahno.”

“I don’t know what I’m saving myself for…my career’s over anyway. It doesn’t matter. Just do it.”

“Forget it.”  

“I can’t take this. Please, please, Korra. I changed my mind. I want it now.” He was pulling her on top of him, his ankles crossed at the small of her back.

“And what are you going to do when you’re pregnant?” she asked. “What are you going to do with a _baby_?”

“I don’t care,” he groaned miserably. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Just make it feel good, please, please.”

There was definitely more than the heat speaking there. Those were the words of someone with nothing to live for. Yet she realized that only dully, distantly, through a haze of need.

“I can’t do this to you,” she struggled to say, his heels pressing her down towards him, closer, closer.

“Just give me something nice. One good moment. Just one.” He said it like it was the last one he would ever have. Like it was the only moment left that mattered at all. “You want it,” he whispered in her ear. “You want it as much as I do.”

The tip of her clit was pressing against his entrance again, and with an anguished groan, Korra let herself sink into him. “I’m…I’m not going to knot in you, though,” she said. “I won’t.”

But oh, by all the spirits in this world and the next, the sun and stars and moon and sea and all that comes after, it felt _good_. She thrust into him hard, hours of pent-up frustration in her, and his whole body shook, the bed shook, the hangings on the wall shook, the moon rattled down from the sky.

“Thank you,” he choked out, his voice low and hoarse.

When the spasm came, she dug deep into him, buried as far as she could go, and gripped him tightly with both hands, a strangled sound deep in her throat. As she swelled in him, she felt him clench tight around her, and his hips lifted off the bed towards her. The shock wave went through both of them, and he had to bite down on his knuckle to keep from waking the whole block.

_I never meant to._

It was too late now. She couldn’t pull out, and she began to come inside him, his body almost seeming to wring it out of her. It was a moment of perfect joy, yet somewhere under it she knew she’d done a terrible thing.

At that moment, she looked up at Tahno’s face. She’d been afraid to see the terror or disgust sinking in as he realized what they’d just done, afraid he would panic and try to get her out of him before her knot went down. But there was just simple, unguarded bliss. She’d never seen him this happy, not even at the restaurant with his friends before everything had gone so wrong.

After everything he’d been through in the past two days, she was glad he could experience that, even if it was just for a moment. She even thought that just maybe, feeling that good made it worth it to be a yin. She didn’t think a yang ever felt anything approaching that calmness, that contentment.

The drowsiness came over her again, and she buckled forward on top of him. He kissed her, everywhere he could reach.

-

When she woke up, they were no longer tied, and Tahno lay next to her. With relief, she realized he was sleeping. For a moment she studied him in the bright moonlight. He looked like he’d lost a bit of weight from his ordeal, his ribs just starting to jut from under the muscles. The heat had taken everything his body had. His penis lay flaccid against his belly, looking almost bruised.

Then the terror of what she had done came back to her. Pregnancy was a terrible thing to go through, babies were life-changing. And it wasn’t just that, it was _dangerous_ , for any yin to carry a child, but yin boys had it harder, with their narrow hips and tiny holes, sometimes birth wasn’t _possible_. She might not have just ruined his life, she could have actually killed him just now.

Panicked, she tried to bend as much of the semen out of him as she could. She didn’t want to wake him, knowing how badly he needed sleep, but she couldn’t let this happen. When she’d gotten all she could, she went to the bathroom and returned with some warm water. He stirred slightly when she started bending it up his ass, making the saddest sound she’d ever heard at whatever cruel thing would wake him.

“Shh,” she said, kissing his forehead. “Just cleaning you up. Go back to sleep, okay?”

The poor thing was actually so tired he nodded and let her continue, though she didn’t think he actually slept again until she was done.

With as much of it cleaned out of him as was humanly possible, Korra continued fretting over him a moment. There was nothing else she could do. He’d either get pregnant or he wouldn’t. If he did, she vowed to herself she’d take responsibility, and either help him find someone to terminate the pregnancy or help raise the child, whichever he needed of her.

Not that she felt at _all_ ready to be a mom. There was no way she could end up being tied down like that for one…indiscretion, right? For a moment of mingled pity and simple hormonal arousal….but she couldn’t let him do it alone, either. She’d had just as much part in this.

As his fever was wearing off, Tahno had started to shiver, and Korra got a blanket and pulled it over both of them, holding him close.

-

It was a knock on the door, late in the morning, that woke her again. Korra stirred to see Tahno still sleeping. The knock came again, louder, and Korra figured she’d better see who it was before it woke him up. Groggily, she got to her feet, wrapped a sheet around herself, then realized what it was stained with and dropped it. She eventually settled on grabbing one of Tahno’s jackets from his closet, which came down to her knees.

It was the Wolfbats earthbender. Well. Former earthbender. He gave Korra an incredulous, enraged look. “I can’t believe _you_ of all people would—”

“Shh,” Korra cut in. “Tahno’s still sleeping.”

“Oh, I’m sure he _is_. You know, you’re the Avatar, you could have just about anyone, you don’t have to prey on the vulnerable like this.”

Korra tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. “It wasn’t like that, I swear.” Except maybe it was. Yesterday’s events played through her mind. He’d begged her to keep going every step of the way. That made it all right, didn’t it?

Maybe it didn’t, she thought, her stomach sinking. There was still so much she didn’t know about yins.

“Let me see him,” he said, trying to push his way in, and Korra pushed back.

“Ming,” came Tahno’s voice from behind her. Korra looked around. Tahno was wearing nothing but his pants from yesterday, and if she’d thought his hair was bad before, it was an utter disaster now, sticking in every direction. Exhaustion deepened every line in his face. “I was sleeping. Fuck off.”

“I came to check on you yesterday,” Ming said, quietly hurt. “You weren’t here. For hours. I ended up calling the police, and they told me you’d been in to give a statement, so at least you were alive and not kidnapped by sex cartels.”

Tahno dragged a hand over his face. “Sorry. Just. Can we do this later.”

“I would have protected you from her,” Ming said.

“I didn’t want protecting. I invited her here,” he said wearily.

“Of course you did, you were—”

“ _Look_ ,” Tahno said, raising his voice in anger. “I am about as tired as it’s possible for a person to be without being dead, and this is my apartment, and right now you are going to get out or I’m going to call the cops. _Out_! _Both_ of you!”

Ming stepped back and left, with one last disgusted look at Korra.

“Wait,” Korra said, “me too? What’d I do?” She regretted the words instantly. She’d only _ruined his life_ , was all.

Tahno touched her cheek tenderly for a moment, though there was no smile on his face. “You were great, Korra, I just…kind of need to be alone right now.” He walked back into his bedroom, and Korra had to follow him because her clothes were there.

He collapsed on the bed as she drew her clothes on. Her thoughts were racing. “I’m sorry, Tahno,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to—”

Tahno just waved an arm at her. “If you’re not sleep, then I don’t care about you.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” she said, just before she left. He neither confirmed nor objected to this, though a glance back told her he wasn’t asleep yet—his eyes were still open, staring blankly at the wall like it was a thousand miles away.

-

Korra wasn’t sure how long she should wait—she didn’t want to bother Tahno again before he was fully recovered, but didn’t want him to think she’d abandoned him, either. After a day had passed, she decided to err on the side of coming back too soon, and just go away again if he told her to.

He’d promised he’d send her a bouquet of roses, but somehow Korra felt she should be the one to bring flowers. Maybe not roses, though, she didn’t want to seem to be pressuring him to make something of what happened if he’d rather just put it behind him. She hesitated a bit at the florist, who asked her who the flowers were for.

“Someone special,” she said, “a friend. Or someone I hope will be my friend.” He gave her a white rose, along with another small white flower she didn’t know the name of.

On further consideration, she also got two orders of dumplings.

She knocked on Tahno’s door quietly, not wanting to wake him if he was sleeping. But in a moment, she heard bare feet padding over to the door.

He didn’t look much better than he had last time she’d seen him, and was still wearing the same pants. “Hey,” he said weakly. Then, “Is that food I smell?”

“For you,” she said, handing him the bag. “I got you flowers too.”

That seemed to settle it, though she suspected the food had more to do with it than the flowers. “Come in,” he said.

The old scents of their sex still lingered in the air, but Tahno smelled like a regular yin again. He sat down at the table and set into the dumplings with relish. “Been too tired to cook,” he muttered. She wondered if he couldn’t have ordered in, but maybe he didn’t have a phone. He certainly had the money, but not everyone liked them.

“How do you feel?” Korra hedged.

“Like I’ve been run over by a freight train,” he said.

“I’m—”

“If you tell me you’re sorry one more time, I’ll…well, I’ll glare at you morosely, because I can’t do jack shit without my bending.”

“You could still punch me.”

He laughed, almost a choke. “Not with this body. I might be able to move my fist in your general direction.” He wolfed down a few more dumplings, and Korra didn’t interrupt him.

Finally, “You’re wondering if I’m pregnant.”

“Yeah,” Korra said.

“You and me both. It’s too soon to test for it.”

“Oh,” Korra said, her heart sinking. She’d thought for sure that one way or the other she would _know_. “Well, if you are…I’ll stand by whatever you decide, okay? Whatever you need.”

“Thank you. That’s…comforting.” He didn’t look terribly comforted, though. He looked about how she’d probably feel if there might or might not be something growing inside her that could kill her and would be more responsibility than she could handle even if it didn’t.

“My career’s over either way, though,” he said. “So…whatever. I’m trying not to think about it.”

“How’s that going?”

“It fucking sucks.” He grabbed the second order of dumplings and set into that too. Korra had originally intended to share, but he seemed to need it a lot more than she did.

“If you need something to distract you, you could help me fight the Equalists,” she said.

“I think you’ll have better luck if you get people who are _useful_ in some way to help you.”

“It doesn’t have to be today or anything. You’ll get your strength back.”

He sighed. “My bending isn’t coming back, Korra.”

“I’m sure we could find something for you to do.”

“What, file paperwork, answer phones?”

Korra shrugged. “You got something better to do?”

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

-

It was two weeks later when Tahno came to see her on Air Temple Island. Korra hadn’t meant to ignore him for so long, but she’d gotten so caught up in the investigation, and then what with being kidnapped by Tarrlok and all and nearly getting captured by Amon. He was dressed simply, in dark, form-fitting clothes, his hands empty.

“Hey,” Korra said, forcing a nervous smile. “Good to see you. What’s up?”

“Well,” Tahno said, “I’m not pregnant.”

A smile broke out over Korra’s face. “Oh Tahno, I’m so glad.” She hugged him with sudden enthusiasm. He hugged her back, and there was a bit of real relief on his face too when they broke apart.

“Yeah,” he said. “Since the heat was drug-induced, it probably wasn’t close enough to my natural cycle. Sure _felt_ real enough, though. Anyway, I wanted you to know that.”

Korra nodded. “Thank you.”

“While I’m here,” he said, “is that offer still open? I don’t know shit about filing, but I’m starting to feel a lot more like punching things.”

Korra grinned wide. “I thought you’d never ask.”      

**Author's Note:**

> WELP I am about a mile out of my comfort zone. If you liked this but are embarrassed to admit it, anonymous kudos/comments are completely fine. I UNDERSTAND AND DO NOT JUDGE.


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